Are the stars out tonight? is a wonderful story map exploring the issue of light pollution. This resource was created by Brendan Conway, a geography teacher at Notre Dame School in Cobham, UK, who opens this piece by pointing out that the lyrics to the 1934 song "I Only Have Eyes For You" (from which this story map gets its title) could very well be about light pollution. Conway goes on to explain...

Citizen science projects, which have gained a great deal of popularity in recent years, invite citizens from around the world to participate in scientific data gathering and analysis. Such projects enable scientists to explore research questions on a large scale thanks to the contributions of citizen scientists. We've featured a number of unique citizen science projects this past year, but one of...

Anyone who loves exploring the night sky should head over to Dark Site Finder, a website designed to help visitors find spots ideal for stargazing. Created by photographer Kevin Palmer, visitors to the site can check out the level of light pollution in any region of the United States by entering an address into the site's map. As the site notes, "For many people getting to a 100% dark sky is not...

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific maintains a Web site of the same name, with an interesting section titled Environmental Issues and Astronomy: An Introductory Resource Guide. Most people may not normally think that their would be environmental issues related to astronomy, but this site explores four of them -- one of which is light pollution. Although the descriptions of the issues on this...

Light pollution has greatly diminished how well individuals around the world can view the night sky. For the past decade, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory has hosted Globe at Night, a citizen science project that collects global data about light pollution. The project invites participants to fill out a form that details their location, the sky conditions, and what constellations they...